Since it’s founding in 1966, CLF has won hundreds of environmental lawsuits, protected thousands of acres of wild lands, and made New England a cleaner, greener, healthier place to live. But we don’t just safeguard our treasured natural places and shut down polluters – we create comprehensive long-term solutions to environmental challenges. Check out just a few of our wins and help us celebrate six decades of protecting the place we all call home.
1966-1976: Saving Mt. Greylock from Development
Hiking Mt. Greylock in western Massachusetts is a rite of passage for New Englanders. But if developers had had their way, we would be hiking among ski lifts, fast food outlets, and condos. When Ben Nason, a forester, Korean war veteran, and CLF’s founder, learned about plans to build a ski resort on Mt. Greylock, he took action to protect this iconic New England place. Nason and a small group of fellow attorneys sued to stop the development of Massachusetts’ highest peak. They won that case in 1966, and a new way of protecting the environment was born.
Preventing the development of Mt. Greylock set a legal precedent that became the basis for modern environmental law. The case applied the “public trust doctrine” – which had previously been applied only to rivers and coastlines – to forests and mountains. The public trust doctrine is a legal principle that holds that natural and cultural resources are commonly owned by the public and held in trust by the government on behalf of the people. This win set a precedent that CLF and environmental advocates across the country use to win environmental cases to this day.
1976-1986: Cleaning Up Boston Harbor
Many of the people who belt out “Love that dirty water, Oh Boston you’re my home” at Red Sox games haven’t experienced Boston’s dirty water in person. We have CLF to thank for that. In 1983, CLF sued the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the EPA for allowing Boston Harbor to become a dumping ground for raw sewage. CLF won that case, forcing a complete overhaul of how Boston sewage is treated.
The cleanup took decades, and we’re still fighting to keep sewage from overflowing into the Charles and Mystic rivers during heavy rainstorms, which are increasingly common because of climate change. Along the way, CLF became ever-more tenacious in fighting for clean air and water across New England. We’re proud that Boston’s dirty water is (mostly) something we only sing about at baseball games.
1986-1996 Cleaning Up Maine’s Casco Bay
People don’t sing about it, but Maine’s Casco Bay was at least as dirty as Boston Harbor when CLF stepped in to stop the City of Portland and industrial operations from dumping millions of gallons of untreated sewage and chemicals into its waters. In 1989, CLF sued Portland and South Portland, and in 1991, CLF reached a landmark agreement that changed the way water pollution was policed by cities and towns across the country.
The agreement required Portland to take proactive steps to prevent sewage from flowing into Casco Bay, to overhaul aging, inadequate sewer systems, and to develop a comprehensive plan for addressing future growth. This approach to managing sewage is standard now, but it was groundbreaking in 1991, thanks to CLF’s lawsuit.
1996-2006: Preserving Forests in Vermont and New Hampshire
When loggers and energy developers started looking at the forests of Vermont’s Green Mountains and New Hampshire’s White Mountains in the late 1990s, they saw dollar signs. But CLF and other conservation organizations across the region saw forests that had finally recovered from clear cutting almost a century earlier. So, CLF stepped up to help build a broad coalition of environmentalists, lawmakers, and residents that came together to protect more than 80,000 acres of forest from logging, drilling, mining, and road building.
The New England Wilderness Act, passed in 2006, didn’t just protect large areas of forest from development. It also established the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area in Vermont, which balances ecological protection with recreational uses like mountain biking, snowmobiling, and camping. Finding that balance was a win for CLF, for conservation, for recreation, and for all New Englanders.
2006-2016: Launching Offshore Wind in Rhode Island
The wind whipping the leaves off the trees and can make us feel cold and disheveled. But that same wind provides a powerful source of clean, renewable energy that can heat and cool our homes and business. Block Island Wind, the nation’s first offshore wind project, has been providing local, sustainable energy to island residents since it came online in 2016, replacing the island’s noisy, dirty diesel generators.
CLF’s tireless advocacy was instrumental in the development of Block Island Wind. We helped create a straightforward permitting process for the project through our work on Rhode Island’s ocean management plan. And, we ensured that the drive to develop offshore wind energy didn’t come at the expense of ocean wildlife. With our partners, CLF developed a historic agreement with the developer, Deepwater Wind, to minimize the impacts of its pre-construction activities on endangered North Atlantic right whales. That agreement laid a critical foundation for how to balance the needs of our precious ocean wildlife with those of the renewable energy industry during future offshore wind projects in New England and across the country.
2016-2026: Ending Coal in CT, NH, and MA
When CLF launched its Coal-Free New England campaign in 2012, we set out to eliminate a dirty energy source that had polluted our air for two centuries. And by 2021, Massachusetts’ “filthy five” and Connecticut’s “smoggy six” – the dirtiest coal plants doing the most harm to their communities – had been shuttered. The region’s last two coal-fired plants, New Hampshire’s Merrimack Station and Schiller Station, ceased operation in 2025.
And what happens to a dirty coal plant once it’s shut down? Across the region, some of these plants are being converted into clean energy hubs to support the renewable energy future we need. Others will be redeveloped to serve their communities in other ways. CLF took its first steps against coal in 1992, when it blocked the construction of a coal plant in New Bedford, MA. Three decades later, we all breathe cleaner air as a result.
2026-2036 Building Our Clean Energy Future
As CLF celebrates its 60th anniversary, we aren’t resting on our laurels. For decades, we have been looking ahead and working tirelessly to build a future powered by clean energy sources. This month, two offshore wind farms became fully operational, despite the Trump administration’s efforts to stop their construction and block our progress towards a future powered by renewable energy.
Offshore wind now generates enough clean electricity to power more than 750,000 homes and businesses across New England. Together, these projects will prevent more than 3 million tons of carbon pollution from fouling our air and lungs each year by replacing fossil fuels. That’s the equivalent of taking more than 650,000 cars off the road. CLF’s work was essential to developing offshore wind. As we enter our seventh decade of advocacy for New England, we celebrate this major milestone in building a future powered by clean, renewable energy.
Six Decades of Fighting for our Shared Home
For 60 years, we’ve been the force behind some of New England’s biggest environmental wins. From protecting Mt. Greylock to cleaning up Boston Harbor to ending coal in New England, we take on fights that feel impossible. We fight to secure cleaner air, protected waters, and healthier communities for everyone. And we couldn’t do this alone. We’ve succeeded because you – our volunteers, members, and donors – have been there, walking alongside us every step of the way.
